Weissenberg School

Formally Recognized:
1989/03/07

Other Name(s)

Links and documents

n/a

Construction Date(s)

1900/01/01 to 1900/12/31

Listed on the Canadian Register:
2006/03/21

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Weissenberg School is a Municipal Heritage Property located less than one kilometre east of the Village of Lemberg within the Rural Municipality of McLeod No. 185. Constructed in 1900, the property features a one-storey fieldstone school with a wooden porch situated on a small grassy field.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Weissenberg School lies in its association with Catholic education in the area and in its status as one of the oldest standing separate school buildings in Saskatchewan. The school was built in 1900 as Weissenberg Roman Catholic Public School to serve an area settled by German-speaking Catholic pioneers who travelled to the region from Weissenberg in present-day Poland. In 1907, non-Catholic members of the Weissenberg school community formed the Lemberg Public School Division and the Weissenberg School was transferred to the Separate School system. By 1922, the stone school was not able to accommodate the growing Catholic population and a larger one-room wooden school was built on the site. The old stone school was then used as a teacherage until 1964, when the school closed.

The heritage value of the property also lies in its architecture, which is typical of vernacular one-room schoolhouses and fieldstone construction of the period. Built by Wilhelm Sebastian Hanowski and his assistant Peter Reiger, the Weissenberg School has a rectangular form featuring one large open room and a simple symmetrical layout with a gable roof and a porch. The Weissenberg School is constructed of fieldstone, a material once commonly used for small residential and institutional buildings across Southeastern Saskatchewan. This is one of the last remaining fieldstone schools in the province from that era.

The heritage value of the property also lies in its landscape. Weissenberg School is situated on a small grass field that separates the property from the adjoining churchyard and agricultural land. The field is the only remaining section of the historical schoolyard.

Source:

Rural Municipality of McLeod No. 185 Bylaw #1/89.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Weissenberg School resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the property's representative architecture, including its one-room configuration, symmetrical layout, regular massing and gable roof;
-those elements that reflect the property’s association with Catholic education in the area, including the position of the building on its original location;
-the fieldstone materials used in the property’s construction;
-the school's positioning on a small grass field;
-the building’s wood shingles and wood-sided porch.